# Accessing docstring of a field
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accessing-docstring-of-a-field/4830
**Category:** General Usage
**Tags:** question
**Created:** [July 13, 2017, 8:43am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accessing-docstring-of-a-field/4830 "2017-07-13T08:43:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2017, 8:43am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accessing-docstring-of-a-field/4830/1 "2017-07-13T08:43:20Z")
Fields of a `struct` can be [documented](https://docs.julialang.org/en/latest/manual/documentation/#Types-1), but how does one retrieve the docstrings? Is it possible via `?` in the REPL? MWE:
```julia
struct Foo
"I want this docstring"
x
end
```
---
### Author:  [@giordano](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/giordano)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2017, 8:53am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accessing-docstring-of-a-field/4830/2 "2017-07-13T08:53:50Z")
```julia
julia> "docstring for T type"
struct T
"docstring for x field"
x
"docstring for y field"
y
end
T
help?> T
search: try Type Task toq toc tic tan Text Test Tuple triu tril time tanh tand Timer tuple throw trunc trues triu! tril! trace touch take!
docstring for T type
help?> T.x
docstring for x field
help?> T.y
docstring for y field
```
---
### Author:  [@darwindarak](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/darwindarak)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2017, 11:47am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accessing-docstring-of-a-field/4830/3 "2017-07-13T11:47:19Z")
Looks like it only shows up if you also have docstrings for the struct itself
```julia
julia> """
Foo docs
"""struct Foo
"I want this docstring"
x
end
Foo
help?> Foo.x
I want this docstring
```
---
### Author:  [@jw3126](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jw3126)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 8:27am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accessing-docstring-of-a-field/4830/4 "2019-06-19T08:27:06Z")
What if the type is parametric?
```julia
julia> "..."
struct T{X,Y}
"x"
x::X
"y"
y::Y
end
T
help?> T
search: T try Type Task tan Text Tuple time tanh tand Timer tuple throw trunc trues touch take! typeof TypeVar Threads typemin typemax trylock time_ns thisind tempdir TypeError typejoin tryparse truncate
...
help?> T.x
ERROR: MethodError: no method matching Base.Docs.Binding(::Type{T}, ::Symbol)
Closest candidates are:
Base.Docs.Binding(::Module, ::Symbol) at docs/bindings.jl:12
Stacktrace:
[1] top-level scope at /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.1/REPL/src/docview.jl:355
```
---
### Author:  [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 8:57am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accessing-docstring-of-a-field/4830/5 "2019-06-19T08:57:35Z")
There is an open issue for this:
[https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/29478](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/29478)
---
### Author:  [@disberd](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/disberd)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2023, 9:03am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accessing-docstring-of-a-field/4830/6 "2023-01-18T09:03:36Z")
I am reviving an old thread but I think the subject is very relevant.
Is there a way to access the field docstrings programmatically without using the interactive help in the REPL?
I can access the basic documentation of the struct either with `Main.Docs.Binding(Main, :T)` or with `@doc T` but I didn’t find out how to extract the docstring for the field `T.x` programmatically
---
### Author:  [@disberd](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/disberd)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2023, 1:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accessing-docstring-of-a-field/4830/7 "2023-02-10T13:46:20Z")
I finally got some time to try and search for this a bit more in detail.
The function for accessing the docstring of a field is called `fielddoc` and is inside the `REPL` module:
>
---
### Author:  [@airpmb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/airpmb)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2023, 5:35pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/accessing-docstring-of-a-field/4830/8 "2023-03-02T17:35:36Z")
I found this thread looking to see if there is a way to get VS Code to show the field docstring when hovering on a field. From the above, it seems like it should be feasible. Does anyone know if it can be enabled?